I'm too old a bird to be caught by chaff.
Meaning: Experience teaches you to recognize deception disguised as something worthless or trivial.
Origin: Bird-catchers once scattered chaff as bait, and only young birds fell for it. The saying dates from the late 15th century and is used by anyone too experienced to be fooled.
More proverbs about Wisdom
- The chamber of sickness is the chapel of devotion. — Illness strips away life's distractions, leaving only the essential human need to seek me…
- It chanceth in an hour that comes not in seven years. — Fortune can deliver in moments what patient waiting over years might never produce.
- Change of pasture makes fat calves. — New environments and fresh opportunities allow young, developing people to thrive and gro…
- The charitable give out at the door, and God puts in at the window. — Generosity creates a virtuous cycle where outward giving mysteriously returns through une…
- A cherry year, a merry year. — Abundant harvests of cherries historically signaled prosperity and good fortune for the c…
- A chip of the old block. — Children naturally inherit their parents' character traits and behaviors, reproducing the…
From our idioms
- Считать ворон (Schitat' voron) — To idle and let chances slip by.
- Гол как сокол (Gol kak sokol) — Dirt poor; without a thing to your name.
- 月とすっぽん (Tsuki to suppon) — Two things alike at a glance but worlds apart.